A MEMS is a device having dimensions that are micrometric or nanometric in scale. It is equipped with a resonant vibratile mechanical structure, according to the structure thereof, with a specific natural frequency. This mechanical resonant frequency is used, for example, for the manufacture of electronic components, such as resonators, which have an electric resonance equal to the mechanical resonance.
Resonators are used in resonant electronic circuits, applied, for example, to signal filtering, or frequency generator (Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO)) operations, for example, for the generation of a carrier in telephony. To obtain resonant electronic circuits, so-called LC circuits, combining an inductance L and a capacitance C, may conventionally be used. However, such circuits have the drawback of having relatively low quality coefficients and high phase noise. Therefore, MEMS are generally preferred to LC circuits as they have high quality factors.
Moreover, quartz resonators are generally known. These resonators have very good quality factors, but are discrete components and, as such, pose connection and cost problems for the use thereof with an integrated electronic circuit.